全 文 ：第 16 卷
第 3 期

Vol. 16
No . 3
草
地
学
报
ACTA AGRESTIA SINICA



2008 年
5 月

May

2008
Fiber Performance of Introduced Huacaya Alpacas Grazing on Sown Pasture
JIANG Jun-bing, HE Jun-ping, DONG Chang-sheng
*
, DONG Kuan- hu
( Colleg e of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, S han xi Ag ricultural University, Taigu, Shanxi Provin ce 030801, P. R. Ch ina)
Abstract: H uacaya alpaca w as int roduced into China from Australia in 2002 and then ro tat ionally gr azed on
sow n pasture composed of alfalfa ( Med icago sat iv a L. ) and smooth bromegrass ( Br omus inermis Leyss. ) .
Female alpacas were supplemented w ith compound feed in w inter ( October to nex t M ar ch) . F iber samples
w ere collected fr om 68 Huacaya alpacas fo r the measurements of mean fiber diameter , staple leng th, fiber
crimpy, and medullation proport ion. SA S 9. 0 w as used to analyze the main effects of sex, co at color, and
age on the gr easy fiber yield and all tested fiber t rait s. The r esul ts show that the g reasy f iber yield o f Hua-
caya alpaca reared in China w as sim ilar to that repo rted thr oughout the w orld and the f iber t rait s w ere sig-
nificant ly affected by sex and age ( P< 0. 05) . T he mean fiber diameter of sampled alpacas w as thinner than
that in Aust ralia and U. S. , and the st rengthened staple length w as sim ilar to that in Aust ralia and New
Zealand, shorter than that in the U. S. and Peru. Based on these results, w e conclude that the change of
fiber t raits should be at t ributed to the differ ent feeding management and nutritional level.
Key words: Huacaya alpaca; Sow n pasture; Rotat ional g razing ; F iber tr ait s
人工草场放牧对羊驼产毛性能的影响
姜俊兵, 贺俊平 , 董常生* , 董宽虎
(山西农业大学动物科技学院, 山西 太谷 030801)
摘
要: 南美羊驼于 2002 年由澳大利亚引入我国以来,饲养管理采用紫花苜蓿与无芒雀麦混播的人工草场划区轮
牧结合冬季雌性补饲方式进行。本研究选择剪毛两次以上的成年羊驼 68 头,分别取样, 测定纤维直径、自然长度、
伸直长度、弯曲度和有髓纤维比率; 统计分析性别、被毛颜色、年龄等对原毛产量以及测定指标的影响, 并分析测定
指标间的相关程度。结果表明,羊驼的平均原毛产量与国外报道结果相近, 性别与年龄显著影响毛纤维遗传性状
( P< 0. 05) ,性状间相关分析与国外报道结果一致。供试羊驼平均纤维直径低于澳大利亚、美国等国的研究报道;
伸直长度与澳大利亚、新西兰等国的报道数据相近, 低于美国、秘鲁等国报道的数据, 其他性状分析结果与国外报
道相似。笔者分析,羊驼在我国养殖过程中发生的经济性状改变,可能主要源于饲养管理方式及营养水平的改变。
关键词: 羊驼; 人工草场; 划区轮牧; 毛纤维性状
中图分类号: S815. 2




文献标识码: A




文章编号: 1007-0435( 2008) 03-0245-06
1
Introduction
South America camelids alpacas ( L ama p acos )
have been domest icated as a high quality fiber pro-
ducing animal for about 6000 years at A ndean plat-
eau countr ies, mainly in Peru and Chile. At the
beginning of 1980s, alpacas w ere int roduced to
many countries f rom South America w hich brought
a fast development for alpaca indust ries throughout
the w orld. Now, alpaca f iber has become one kind
of the important product from natural fiber producing
animal, because the alpaca f iber is much f iner than
that of other domestic animals. Medullation of the f-i
ber is also v er y low and alpaca f iber is crimped and
收稿日期: 2008-03-17; 修回日期: 2008-04-21
基金项目: 农业部
948
项目( No. 202096- A) , The w ork w as supported by
948
pr oject , M inist ry of Agricu lture of P. R. Chin a.
作者简介: 姜俊兵( 1975-) ,男,山西武乡人,博士研究生,副教授,研究方向为动物分子遗传, E-mail: sxn djef f rey@ 126. com; JIANG Jun-
bing, ( 1975-) , male, Ass ociate Profes sor, Ph. D student , m ajor in anim al molecular gen et ics . * 通讯作者 Author for corre-
sponden ce, E-mail: cs_dong@ sxau. edu. cn
草
地
学
报 第 16卷
lust rous[ 1, 2] .
Alpaca fiber value, as in all other f iber produ-
cing species, is dependent on tho se phenotypes,
such as mean f iber diameter ( MFD) , staple leng th
( SL) , fiber crimpy ( FC) and medullat ion propor-
t ion ( M P ) . For the commercial purpo se, high
yield of fiber is ano ther impor tant factor for alpaca
breeding and select ion.
It w as the first t ime that Huacaya alpaca w as
impo rted into P. R. China f rom A ustr alia in 2002.
The main changed env ir onmental facto rs for Hua-
caya alpacas g row n in China include natural g eog-
r aphy, climat ic condition and feeding management
manner. In most farm s of Aust ralia, the alpacas
ar e executed f ree choice g razing in paddocks,
w hich is dif ferent f rom the gr azing management
system used for alpacas in China. The aim of this
study is to evaluate the f iber characterist ics of a-l
paca g razing on sow n pasture in Shanx i, China.
2
Materials and methods
2. 1
Animal feeding situation and management
The experiment w as executed in the exper-i
mental alpaca farm of Shanxi Ag ricultural U niver-
sity, w hich is located in Jinzhong County, Shanx i
province, w ith an alt itude of about 860 m. The re-
gion belongs to temperate zone of cont inental mon-
soon w ind climate, w ith averaged annual precipita-
t ion 503. 7 mm ( r ange 380 - 770 mm) , av eraged
daily temperatur e 6. 3- 10. 7
, and a mean frost-
f ree period of 150 days.
In the spring o f 2002, the sow n pasture w as
established by cro ss mix ture sow ing and composed
72% of alfalfa ( M edicag o sat iva L. ) and 28% of
smooth bromegr ass ( Br omus inermis Leyss. ) .
T he mean fresh yield w as about 63 t/ ha. T he nu-
trient components of forage w ere listed as in T able
1. Alpacas, separated by sex and age, w ere rota-
t ionally grazed in the pasture dur ing g razing sea-
son. T he sow n pasture was divided into 8 plo ts
w ith 1 ha each. U t ilizat ion ratio o f pasture w as a-
bout 80% in g razing season. The rotation g razing
per iod w as 5 day s for 60 alpacas in each plo t. In
w inter ( October to nex t M arch) , alpacas w er e fed
w ith hay of alfalfa and smooth bromegrass harv es-
ted in autumn, and females w ere supplemented
w ith concentrate feeds ( see Table 1) . T he dry matter
intake for alpacas w as approximately equal to 1. 8%
body weight, which was low er than sheep and goat[ 3] .
Table 1
Mean nutrient component of forage and supplementary concentrate
Forage Grow th stages CP( % ) EE( % ) CF( % ) NEF( % ) Ca( % ) P( % )
Vegetat ive 28. 75 3. 75 23. 75 36. 25 1. 52 0. 46
Alfalfa Bud 19. 61 4. 13 27. 18 34. 63 1. 45 0. 35
Flow erin g 14. 75 1. 55 33. 37 39. 02 1. 44 0. 26
Elongat ion 16. 67 2. 86 29. 25 39. 47 0. 69 0. 28
Sm ooth brom egrass Boot 13. 17 2. 89 31. 00 43. 94 0. 61 0. 22
Anthesis 12. 55 4. 19 29. 41 45. 56 0. 50 0. 26
Seeding 8. 97 1. 59 35. 49 48. 04 0. 45 0. 29
Supplem entary con cen t rate 16. 05 4. 75 3. 78 0. 98 0. 75
Table 2
Description of sampled Alpacas
Age( y r) Number T ot al
Coat co lo r
Na tural whit e T ot al Pigment ed T o tal
Female 37 33 4
1~ 2 4 4
2~ 8 28 25 3
> 8 5 4 1
Male 31 5
1~ 2 9 5
2~ 8 22


Not e: pigment ed coat color alpacas include two brownish red colo rs, fo ur
brown, one dilute brown and two buf f
2. 2
Animals and sampling methods
T w o hundred and four f iber samples w ere ob-
tained from 68 alpacas at dif ferent body par ts of
neck ( N) , mid side ( M ) , and thigh ( T ) , respec-
t ively. The sampled alpacas included 21 parental
g eneration ( three male) impo rted fr om Australia
and others w ere their off springs ( T able 2) .


Body w eight w as recor ded befo re collect ing
the fiber samples. T otal greasy fiber y ield ( GFY)
246
第 3期 姜俊兵等:人工草场放牧对羊驼产毛性能的影响
of sampled alpacas w ere measured at shearing t ime
in May from 2003 to 2007. The f iber t rait meas-
urements w ere conducted on each sample referring
the test methods for M erino[ 4] . In this study , the
sample measurements included r elax ed staple
leng th ( RSL) , st rengthened staple length ( SSL) ,
FC, MFD and MP. Indiv idual f iber trait w as test-
ed on 100 fibers r andomly, and then calculated the
mean value for stat ist ical analysis. MFD and MP
were tested by opt ical microscopic method. Staple
leng th w as directly tested by ruler. T he FC w as
obtained by count ing the curvature numbers in 1
cm leng th of each f iber under relax ed state.
2. 3
Statistical analysis
The factorial ANOVA w ith Duncan
s mult-i
ple-range test o f SA S sy stems fo r Window s ( ver-
sion 9. 00, SAS Inst itute Inc. , Cary, NC, U SA )
w as used to analy ze the four main ef fects ( sex ,
ag e, body weight , and coat colo r) on the 16 obser-
vat ions r ecorded in this study. The interact ions be-
tw een main ef fects w ere only executed 2-w ay mod-
el, those without signif icant inter act ions w ere re-
moved, such as sex
weight, ag e
weight , and
coat co lor
weight. The CORR procedure of SAS
w as used to analy ze the co rrelat ion coef f icient a-
mong all tested fiber t raits .
3
Results and analysis
3. 1
Fiber traits
T he GFY of alpacas w ere documented f rom
the first shearing o f 21 immig rated alpacas in 2003
to the shearing period of 2007 ( T able 3) . M cGre-
go r repo rted Huacaya alpaca
s mean f iber yields
w ere 3. 01
0. 6 kg ( 1996 ) and 2. 09
0. 4 kg
( 1997) in Aust ralia
[ 5]
, and 2. 16
0. 06 kg in New
Zealand[ 6] . The GFY of Huacaya alpaca in this ex-
periment w as similar to A ust ralia and New Zea-l
and, higher than the average y ield of 1. 8 kg repo r-
ted in Per u
[ 1]
.


Table 4 summarized al l the data col lected,
measured and calculated in the study, including
measurements ( n) , mean values, standard devia-
t ions ( SD) , minimum and maximum values and co-
eff icients o f variat ion ( CV) , w hich w ere used to de-
scribe the f iber product ion performance of alpacas
reared in China.
Table 3
Greasy f iber yields of alpacas from 2003 to 2007
S ex Number Mean ( kg) SD( kg) M inimum ( kg) Maxim um( kg) CV( % )
F 37 2. 11 0. 51 1. 10 3. 20 24. 17
M 31 2. 47 0. 74 1. 35 4. 06 30. 17


Note: the yield of fi rst s hearing for young alpacas w ere not in cluded
Table 4
Descriptive statistic analysis on the test results of age, body weight and fiber traits
Measu rement Number Mean SD Minimum Maxim um CV( % )
Ag e( yr) 68 4. 29 2. 50 1. 42 10. 42 58. 37
BW ( k g) 68 63. 59 15. 34 34. 00 106. 00 24. 12
M FD(
m) N 68 23. 73 6. 02 15. 50 49. 63 25. 35
M 68 22. 32 3. 55 16. 25 32. 00 15. 92
T 68 22. 57 3. 55 16. 75 31. 00 15. 71
RSL( cm) N 68 5. 83 1. 68 2. 61 10. 74 28. 90
M 68 8. 10 1. 70 4. 75 12. 13 21. 01
T 68 8. 38 1. 57 3. 79 11. 30 18. 69
SSL( cm ) N 68 6. 65 2. 00 3. 26 14. 07 30. 04
M 68 9. 56 2. 02 5. 23 13. 77 21. 10
T 68 9. 83 1. 84 4. 86 13. 38 18. 73
FC( n umber/ cm) N 68 4. 99 1. 33 2. 48 10. 50 26. 65
M 68 4. 75 0. 89 3. 07 6. 70 18. 71
T 68 4. 66 0. 81 2. 85 6. 95 17. 45
M P( p er 100) N 68 0. 19 0. 26 0. 00 1. 00 131. 54
M 68 0. 15 0. 19 0. 00 0. 84 129. 65
T 68 0. 19 0. 25 0. 00 0. 90 130. 86
247
草
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报 第 16卷
3. 2
Factorial ANOVA analysis
Sex affected GFY, MFD, RSL, SSL and FC
significant ly ( P< 0. 1; for some trait s ( P< 0. 01)
( Table 5) . In this study , sex ef fect on MFD was
significant , w hich does not agree w ith some r e-
ports[ 6~ 8] . In China, the male and female alpacas
w ere fed separately and the male
s nutrit io n level
( mainly in w inter) w as low er than female
s, per-
haps this w ould be one of the r easons for the MFD
variance betw een male and female alpacas
[ 5, 9]
.
Many scient if ic r esearches show ed that the a-l
paca age af fect M FD significant ly, w hich is con-
sistent w ith the pr esent results ( P< 0. 05, sample
of m id side and thigh P < 0. 01 ) . Another main
ef fect correlated w ith M FD is coat colo r. M cGre-
gor and But ler reported that the light shade w as f-i
ner than dark [ 2, 7] . Because the dark alpacas sam-
ples w as not enough, w e didn
t get such result ,
but the f iber color significant ly af fected the staple
leng th. In this study, the mean RSL o f pigmented
f iber w as shorter than natur al w hite ( P< 0. 05) .
T he mean SSL show ed no signif icant difference be-
tw een pigmented f iber and natural w hite, w hich
m ight be resulted from dif ferent FC, i. e. less FC
for the pigmented f iber than the natural w hite fiber
( show ed no significance) .
T he main ef fect of body w eight of sampled a-l
pacas show ed somewhat significant effect on the
M FD fr om neck and RSL from m id side and thigh.
T he FC characteristic w as mainly affected by the
sex ( P< 0. 05) , and show ed such a t rend of de-
cr easing from neck to thigh. A ge of sampled alpac-
as show ed significant ef fect on MP ( P< 0. 1) , that
w as increased w ith the age ( T able 6) .
As a w hole, the inter act ions among sex, age
and color show ed litt le signif icant effect on most
observ at ions. The sex
coat co lor af fected the
M FD o f mid side and thigh, also the MP o f m id
side ( P< 0. 1) ; the age
coat colo r only affected
the M FD of thigh ( P< 0. 05) ; and the sex
age af-
fected the GFY signif icant ly ( P< 0. 05) .
Table 5
Significance ( P-values) of main ef fects and their interaction on GFY, MFD, RSL, SSL, FC and MP
Source GFY (k g)
MFD(
m) RSL( cm) SSL( cm) FC( number/ cm) MP(per 100)
N M T N M T N M T N M T N M T
Coat color 0. 065 0. 292 0. 332 0. 830 0. 042 0. 077 0. 014 0. 098 0. 198 0. 068 0. 451 0. 073 0. 239 0. 140 0. 029 0. 501
Sex < 0. 001 0. 007 0. 036 0. 024 0. 174 0. 003 0. 010 0. 075 0. 015 0. 039 0. 015 0. 011 0. 022 0. 162 0. 219 0. 335
W eight 0. 535 0. 001 0. 077 0. 376 0. 553 0. 030 0. 020 0. 904 0. 067 0. 083 0. 290 0. 895 0. 701 0. 401 0. 896 0. 699
Age 0. 049 < 0. 001 0. 001 0. 015 0. 018 0. 015 0. 002 0. 003 0. 022 0. 004 0. 916 0. 586 0. 307 0. 061 0. 059 0. 059
Sex
coat color 0. 896 0. 347 0. 062 0. 043 0. 478 0. 870 0. 325 0. 861 0. 667 0. 430 0. 726 0. 528 0. 926 0. 675 0. 074 0. 281
Age
coat color 0. 411 0. 859 0. 164 0. 021 0. 460 0. 551 0. 368 0. 711 0. 674 0. 276 0. 533 0. 473 0. 355 0. 369 0. 172 0. 206
Sex
age 0. 040 0. 784 0. 118 0. 197 0. 888 0. 588 0. 514 0. 529 0. 369 0. 262 0. 239 0. 784 0. 963 0. 859 0. 246 0. 148


Note: N= neck, M= mid s ide, T= thigh
Table 6
Means of alpaca fiber characteristic by sex, age and color
Items
Sex Age C oat color
male female
2 > 2 Pigmen ted Natu ral w hite
GFY( kg) 2. 468a 2. 112b 2. 064 a 2. 422b 1. 890a 2. 333b
M FD(
m ) N 23. 863a 23. 615a 23. 348 a 23. 994b 25. 972a 23. 386a
M 22. 409a 22. 210a 19. 978 a 23. 956b 23. 583a 22. 125a
T 22. 710a 22. 460b 20. 549 a 23. 991b 22. 722a 22. 551a
RSL( cm) N 6. 529a 5. 239b 6. 761 a 5. 174b 4. 803a 5. 984b
M 8. 861a 7. 461b 8. 731 a 7. 657b 7. 623a 8. 172a
T 9. 023a 7. 838b 9. 085 a 7. 882b 7. 754a 8. 473a
SSL( cm ) N 7. 550a 5. 890b 7. 912 a 5. 761b 5. 533a 6. 817b
M 10. 375a 8. 875b 10. 265 a 9. 065b 9. 120a 9. 626a
T 10. 515a 9. 255b 10. 658 a 9. 249b 9. 268a 9. 915a
FC( n umber/ cm) N 5. 413a 4. 474b 4. 896 a 5. 048b 5. 153a 4. 960a
M 5. 014a 4. 434b 4. 660 a 4. 812a 5. 105a 4. 695a
T 4. 933a 4. 339b 4. 484 a 4. 787a 4. 895a 4. 627a
M P( per 100) N 0. 176a 0. 210a 0. 091 a 0. 269b 0. 304a 0. 177a
M 0. 153a 0. 145a 0. 088 a 0. 191b 0. 269a 0. 130b
T 0. 202a 0. 186a 0. 108 a 0. 256b 0. 279a 0. 182a


Note: Mean s with dif feren t su pers cript let ter s in a r ow for a given m ain effect are signif icant ly diff erent at the 0. 05 level
248
第 3期 姜俊兵等:人工草场放牧对羊驼产毛性能的影响
3. 3
Correlations among GFY, MFD, RSL, SSL,
FC and MP
The Huacaya alpacas w ere st rict ly selected
w hen imported from Australian and then scient if ic
breeding st rateg ies w ere executed in the past fiver
year s in China. The f iber t rait s selected in this
study has been proved by many r esearches ver y im-
portant fo r alpaca selection and breeding . T able 7
lists the Pearson co rrelat ion coef ficients betw een
the f iber t rait s invest igated. T he GFY was pos-i
t ively correlated w ith MFD, SL, and MP but nega-
t ively co rrelated to FC; the sheep w ool study got
the same results betw een GFY and MFD
[ 6, 10]
.
T here w ere negat iv e correlat ions betw een FC w ith
M FD, SL and MP; Lupton also reported that the
M FD and FC had a significant ly negat ive correla-
t ion at H uacaya alpacas[ 8] . Fiber crimpy is one of
the main and important t rait s for Huacaya alpaca
being one kind of high quality fiber producing an-i
mals. Al l breeders and farmers hope to decrease
the MP, but the M P show ed a posit ive cor relat ion
w ith GFY, M FD and SL, a negat iv e cor relat ion
w ith FC; how ever the former thr ee t rait s are im-
portant for alpaca f iber product ion per formance.
T his w ould be in a dilemma for alpaca breeding .
Table 7
Correlation coef ficients among GFY, MFD, RSL, SSL, FC and MP
GFY
( kg)
MFD(
m) RSL( cm) SSL( cm) FC( number/ cm) MP( per 100)
N M T N M T N M T N M T N M T
GFY( kg) 1. 000 0. 506 0. 346 0 . 507 - 0. 029 0. 184 0 . 188 0. 034 0. 179 0. 174 - 0. 215 - 0. 233 - 0. 192 0. 448 0. 336 0. 464
MFD(
m) N 1. 000 0. 723 0 . 617 - 0. 175 - 0. 004 - 0 . 077 - 0. 262 - 0. 061 - 0. 139 - 0. 143 - 0. 095 - 0. 022 0. 404 0. 416 0. 354
M 1. 000 0 . 697 - 0. 184 - 0. 039 - 0 . 172 - 0. 254 - 0. 106 - 0. 212 - 0. 176 - 0. 122 - 0. 032 0. 201 0. 484 0. 272
T 1 . 000 - 0. 025 0. 075 0 . 016 - 0. 090 0. 033 - 0. 023 - 0. 213 - 0. 165 - 0. 143 0. 269 0. 370 0. 551
RSL( cm) N 1. 000 0. 506 0 . 543 0. 931 0. 515 0. 540 - 0. 092 - 0. 063 - 0. 296 - 0. 195 - 0. 187 - 0. 152
M 1. 000 0 . 758 0. 546 0. 960 0. 540 - 0. 223 - 0. 255 - 0. 324 0. 007 - 0. 099 - 0. 070
T 1 . 000 0. 570 0. 738 0. 972 - 0. 139 - 0. 208 - 0. 343 - 0. 014 - 0. 192 - 0. 042
SSL( cm) N 1. 000 0. 581 0. 600 - 0. 087 - 0. 063 - 0. 296 - 0. 167 - 0. 187 - 0. 152
M 1. 000 0. 751 - 0. 199 - 0. 201 - 0. 300 0. 037 - 0. 131 - 0. 066
T 1. 000 - 0. 087 - 0. 152 - 0. 311 - 0. 003 - 0. 177 - 0. 030
FC N 1. 000 0. 699 0. 630 - 0. 051 - 0. 050 - 0. 121
( number/ cm) M 1. 000 0. 768 0. 111 - 0. 060 - 0. 035
T 1. 000 0. 056 - 0. 003 - 0. 002
MP( per 100 ) N 1. 000 0. 496 0. 563
M 1. 000 0. 673
T 1. 000


Note: N= neck, M= mid side, T= thigh
4
Discussion and conclusions
MFD is one of the most impo rtant characteris-
t ics of natural animal fiber. In Peru, Sumar r epor-
ted a mean f iber diameter of 24. 02
m for H uacaya
alpacas[ 1] . In New Zealand, the best linear unb-i
ased mean f iber diameter using dif ferent measure-
ment methods r anged from 28. 0 to 31. 9
m[ 6] . In
Australia, a mean f iber diameter of 29. 1
m ( 17. 7-
46. 6
m) w as obtained in alpacas[ 7] . Lupton stud-
ied 585 Huacaya alpaca dist ributed six reg ions o f
America, obtained the MFD was 27. 85
5. 35
m[ 8] .
We go t the M FD of dif ferent sample site o f Hua-
caya alpaca w ere 23. 73
6. 02
m ( neck) , 22. 32

3. 55
m ( m id side) and 22. 57
3. 55
m ( thigh)
respect ively. T he body part MFD variat ion had a
t rend of being coarser from the mid side tow ards
the neck and tow ards the thigh, the results sup-
port the results reported by Wuliji for New Zealand
alpaca study
[ 6]
.
Staple length is ano ther important t rait of a-l
paca fiber industr y; it
s also one of the alpaca fiber
g rade standards. Wo rsted length in alpaca of about
75mm is considered ideal[ 9] . As one of the high
quality f iber producing animal, alpaca f iber length
is different accor ding to differ ent sampling body
site. In this study , the relax ed staple leng th and
str engthened staple leng th w ere measured and ob-
249
草
地
学
报 第 16卷
tained the mean values and SD of staple leng th
( T able 4) . Staple lengths f rom other countries

studies are as fo llow s: 12. 6 cm for H uacaya alpac-
as w ere repor ted in Peru, 9. 9
0. 2 cm in New
Zealand, 9. 4
0. 5 cm and 7. 7
0. 7 cm for tw o
dif ferent consecut ive product ion year s ( 1996 and
1997) respect iv ely in Austr alian, and 11. 6
4. 2
cm ( adjusted) in America[ 1, 5, 8] .
In this study, w e referred the Chinese mer ino
w ool ev aluat ion standar d to measure alpaca f iber
crimpy, and the mean value and SD were 4. 99

1. 33, 4. 75
0. 89 and 4. 66
0. 81 number/ cm for
neck, mid side, and thigh, respectively.
MP w as signif icant ly af fected by age[ 1] . In our
study, the sampled alpaca
s age ranged fr om 1. 42
to 10. 42 years. Accor ding to Lupton
s repo rts,
w e divided tw o g roups by age (
2 gr oup and > 2
group) for statistic analysis. The mean valv es o f
MP w ere 19% fo r neck, 15% for m id side, and
19% for thigh respectively, just like the results r e-
ported by Lupton
[ 8]
.
Alpacas resided in Shanx i, P . R. China for on-
ly f ive years, and the total populat ion r eared in
China is no t more than three hundreds. A lthough
the sample size is no t enough for systemat ic quant-i
tat ive g enetic analysis, the main purpose of estab-
l ishing primary data fo r Huacaya alpacas reared in
China has been got ten. All sampled alpacas in this
study w er e the 21 first ly imm ig rated alpacas, w ho
receiv ed st rict selection before int roduced to Ch-i
na, the f iber performance o f their o ff spring and
themselv es could represent the genet ic t rends.
Our results show that the M FD was much
thinner and the SL shorter than those results got
outside China. Many resear ches gave a negat iv e
cor relat ion betw een nutr it ion level and M FD, and a
posit iv e cor relat ion betw een nutr it ion level and sta-
ple length, so w e can propo se that nutrition level
of sow n pasture established in China for H uacaya
alpacas is low er [ 11] . T he GFY and MP show ed no
signif icant dif ference. T he FC measur ed in our ex-
periment w as referred to a dif ferent standard, and
no same results can be got ten for comparison.
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